Mesh Network solution for wired ethernet

For those who may have an endpoint that just isn’t located conveniently for a CAT6 drop, a Mesh Network might be a solution - it was for me. I have Pro-ject S2 Ultra that connects to my DAC in my main living room system. I’ve been struggling with the S2’s WiFi, and was given advice from Pro-ject to investigate Mesh Network. The reason being is that you can purchase mesh satellites that have 1000baseTX outputs (GigE). I purchased a two station system from Arris that connects to my Arris cable modem and replaces it’s WiFi. The satellite is now connected to the S2’s 100baseTX input, and holy moly, what a difference. I threw everything I could at it a couldn’t break it. It played DSD256 (384KHz PCM) across the link with no dropouts and phenomenal performance. Dang, I love it when stuff works ! If you have a node that needs direct wired ethernet and no drop nearby, the mesh setup provides the connection at a performance level that combines all WiFi bands/channels to deliver the bandwidth. You can also assign QoS to specific nodes to give them high priority. I used the Arris AX6600 Tri-band WiFi 6, and it improved all aspects of my WiFi in addition to the wired ethernet capability.

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I use a mesh network to connect my ROCK and it works flawlessly.


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My ROCK is hardwired to the white Decco mesh satellite shown in the first picture.

I would have liked to discover mesh networks earlier ! That’s why I shared it here, in case someone was facing a similar issue. I recently made upgrades to Roon Server (Nucleus) and replace two DAC’s. The network upgrade made everything sing together, never heard the system sound this good before.

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Mesh system works great for me with Roon and my three streamers.

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Orbi works fine too.
The solution provides a dedicated 5ghz back haul for connection between mesh nods.

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Mesh networks with Lan ports have been a thing for years :wink:

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Not sure that “mesh” has much to do with this. You replaced an ineffective WiFi antenna (in the S2) with a dedicated hardcore WiFi antenna (in the Arris unit), and things improved. Excellent! The WiFi “backhaul” in these things is automatic, but you could do a similar thing with two non-mesh WiFi routers configured as bridges.

Yes, I believe you’re correct. I’m essentially using the satellite as a bridge to the cable modem, and also now able to assign QoS levels to key nodes for Roon (Server, S2, and tablet). I’m sure this could have been accomplished with two WiFi routers, but the ease of installation and configuration was extremely simple and it is really then treated as a single device. The overall home WiFi network is also simplified, there is only one network that can use all three bands as needed. I don’t think the S2 had an ineffective WiFi antenna, it was just limited to 2.4GHz band, as not suited to processing the WiFi and bridge to USB effectively.